Existential Thoughts on the Physical and Digital

“Each human reality is at the same time a direct project to metamorphose its own For-itself into an In-itself-For-itself, a project of the appropriation of the world as a totality of being-in-itself, in the form of a fundamental quality. Every human reality is a passion in that it projects losing itself so as to found being and by the same stroke to constitute the In-itself which escapes contingency by being its own foundation” ― Jean Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness

I like the existentialists. I think they have a really great way of thinking about meaning/reality and what it is to be free. I have had a particular fascination in viewing the rise of digital reality through the lens of the existentialist.

In order to talk about this topic I will make the assumption that everyone consciously wants to be free; anyone who feels otherwise I purpose has had some external experience(s) that have warped what I see as a natural desire. Regardless of any innate desire for freedom many people will acknowledge that there are forces/institutions/culture that hinder us from being free. Even more of us are in denial about the things that oppress us or at least prevent us from being the person who we want to be.

For the existentialists the only way we exercise and demonstrate our freedom is through “projects”. A project is any form of meaning we impose on the world(what type of person we are, which presidential candidate is better, how awesome our life is). Freedom is exercised when we create meaning in the world and then have other people realize that meaning back to us. The importance of realizing is best illustrated with the classic saying

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound”

we need people realizing (repeating/mirroring) the meaning we have created for us to know that it is in fact real. It is in the loop of meaning creation and realization that we truly demonstrate how we are free. I think it is self evident that people find creating meaning very satisfying, relatives sit around the dinner table and create meaning about the current political issues(often cringeworthy) and people groom their digital identity to help create the reality of the person they want to be. Everyone is constantly participating in the creation of reality either consciously/unconsciously by creating new meaning or by realizing existing meaning back to its creators or others.

Aside: A transcendent individual is a person who does not need any realization/feedback in order to be sure of their reality. Which brings up the subtle differences between the insane and transcendent.

The human desire to be able to author meaning and to have it realized back to oneself is something that I expect to see incorporated on the digital world to a greater degree in the coming years. This is one of the greatest things about the digital, that you can be whoever you want. You have radical freedom to create your own reality. The only problem is that the digital world doesn’t provide a great way of having other users realize that reality back to you; it is far too easy to become surrounded by negative influences.

I am curious about finding a way for a user to have the radical freedom to create the identity they want and then to be surrounded by other users who will help realize that back to them in a healthy way. It is important to mention that the type of person who realizes something back to you is very important; someone who you respect or love is a much more effective realizer than someone who you are apathetic about. This means that it is important to surround users with people who they can enjoy/respect/love (can’t the same be said for real life?). The digital world has failed miserably at providing people with these types of relationships and as the line between digital and physical blurs it will continue to become more of a problem.

Our culture has slowly been moving from emphasis on the physical reality towards emphasis on digital reality for decades now. Existentially it makes sense, creating/pursuing projects is significantly easier in the digital world than in the physical one. Geographic location, finances, physical appearance, etc. have significantly diminished control in the digital reality. As the digital world continues to expand and diversify I think it is a reasonable expectation that the trend of moving focus from a physical to digital reality will continue. This means it is extremely important that people are thinking critically of how to help realize reality in the digital world in healthy ways.